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Show Wlli PROBES OIL OPEMTIOHS Attorney General Threatens Companies Whose Activities Activi-ties Seem Questionable. SpoHal to TEe Tribune. CHKYE.VNK, Vvo., Dec. 7. Attor-noy Attor-noy General Donclas A. Preston, who tor tin; lust two month? has been en-;ig,(1d en-;ig,(1d in Rn investigation ot the stook iin and field development activities ot: i-oniiianicM which claim to be operating operat-ing in Wyoming, has ascertained that many oi' these companies not only are not pnffl in actual devclopmeu t work hut h.'ivn iiot complied willi The Wyoming: lavv.-a ;overninr corporations ftnd theref.ore are Tiot in a position to bei:ia development vrork should they havo any intention to do so. The attorney general has served notice no-tice on the state land boards that they should not make any further leases on state owned lands to corporations vhieb have not complied with the state laws, and states that it is his intention to compel companies incorporated under t he Jaws of Wyoming to conform to the state's statute requirements, and to force companies not incorporated in Wyoming but claiming to be doing" business .in this state either to. comply with the Wyoming corporation requirements require-ments or take the consequences of exposure ex-posure of the illegality of their operations. opera-tions. Krrposures which the attorney general 'e office now is in a position to mukv will havo a ruinous effect upon the htock selling campaigns of certain oil concerns, it is claimed. Receipts of the Wyoming secretary of state's office from incorporation fees during 1917 probably will reach $J 00,000. Probably nine-tenths of these fees will represent oil companies which have been chartered during the year. |